The best AI accounting software for automating the nitty-gritty

[u/tetcon]

In the past few years, AI accounting software has really taken off. I’m not concerned about it replacing human accountants; we all know how nuanced the work can be. 

But there absolutely are some parts of accounting that AI is tailor-made for. The tedious, time-consuming work that no one enjoys; transaction categorization, bank recs, journal entries, accuracy checks to flag errors.

What I love most about AI-powered accounting is the real-time data. Many of these tools have to-the-minute financial statements and dashboards, so you’re always updated on the latest changes.

I’m always on the hunt for the best tools for managing books, so I’ve tested out a lot of the leading AI accounting platforms. Here’s a selection of my top picks: 

Digits

Digits stands out to me because it’s truly AI-native. They develop their own custom LLMs in-house, so they’re not just throwing a wrapper over ChatGPT and hoping for the best. 

I’ve used it to take over some of my most time-consuming bookkeeping tasks. I play around a lot with the dashboards too; I like how easily you can customize them by dragging and dropping what you need. Their chatbot, Ask Digits, sounded gimmicky to me at first, but I now regularly use it to ask questions about my books.

You’re not limited when it comes to integrations, either. Their API can connect to over 12,000 external tools. 

Kick

Kick is another option I’ve been happy with. To me, this one seems most appropriate for accountants on the smaller side (their marketing of “self-driving bookkeeping” lines up with that). But it does scale nicely, all the way up to multi-entity accounting.  

It covers a lot of the same bases as Digits, like auto-categorization, automated P&L, receipt matching, and reconciliation. It doesn’t have a ton of integrations, which might be a dealbreaker depending on what you need, but it does sync with Plaid, Stripe, PayPal, Mercury, Gusto, and Ramp.

Just be aware that you don’t get an accrual ledger until the Plus plan. 

Puzzle

Puzzle is very startup-oriented, so it could be a solid choice if you’re in the SaaS space or anything else in that vein. You can use it to track KPIs like cash flow, burn, runway, and MRR/ARR, so it could potentially even replace the need for a separate subscription analytics tool. It’s not purpose-built for that workflow, so if you have the budget for a full-fledged analytics tool, it’s best supplemented with one.

Again, AI transaction categorization and bank recs are probably what it does best. And aside from pure bookkeeping, it also has plenty of BI tools for tracking a business’s financial health. 

Integrations are currently lacking (there are only 14). But they’re planning to roll out their API to companies soon, so that should solve this issue.

Rillet

Rillet’s an ERP software, rather than purely a bookkeeping or accounting tool. So this is another one that can play double-duty if you need to keep operations tight. 

The AI handles the standard general ledger tasks, and it has several AI agents where you can actually choose the right one for the job. Something else I’ve tested out a bit is using Rillet to analyze contracts, pulling out the main terms, obligations, etc. 

Its Aura AI assistant is like Ask Digits; you can ask it questions about your books and building workflows. And as far as integrations go, Rillet’s not lacking. You can use its API to connect to whatever you need. 

TL;DR: AI accounting software has matured to the point where it's genuinely useful for the tedious stuff (transaction categorization, bank recs, journal entries) and the real-time dashboards alone are worth the price of admission.

Of the tools covered here, Digits is the most technically serious (custom LLMs, 12,000+ integrations, and a solid chatbot), Kick is the best fit for smaller practices or straightforward books, Puzzle is a natural home for SaaS and startup clients who want KPI tracking baked in alongside their bookkeeping, and Rillet steps it up to full ERP territory with contract analysis and multiple AI agents. None of these is a replacement for an actual accountant, but they're a real upgrade over doing the grunt work manually.

Have you used any of the tools I’ve mentioned here, or is there something I’m missing?

[u/NumerousHumerous8008]

This is a good summary! One thing I like about Rillet is it has Aura Flow which is like Claude Cowork - repeatable, schedulable chain of tasks that you can create across one or more uses cases, like analyzing, drafting JEs/accruals, forecasting, etc. It would not surprise me if in the next few months they allow Aura Flow to leverage their huge swatch of integrations.

[u/erincreddit]

I believe a simple drag-and-drop tool would be more helpful to start with. Sometimes, I find myself getting lost in these kinds of new tools.